Lechuga-Ballesteros' group hunted for a recipe for dried insulin, a daunting trick because insulin is biologically active only in a liquid state.

FORBES: The Impossible Made Possible

To achieve these feats, Nektar's scientists performed hundreds of hours of computer simulations, tested more than a dozen different formulations of dried insulin and traveled around the world drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese seeds, plants in the Mexican desert and production techniques used in making instant coffee, powdered milk, aviation aerodynamics, truck fuel injectors and industrial vacuum pumps.

FORBES: The Impossible Made Possible